Planning and Zoning for Natural Resource Protection

September 27, 2011

In recent decades, planners have continued to be involved in natural resource protection as a core area of both interest and expertise. However, in many places, mitigation takes precedence over more meaningful efforts to avoid or minimize environmental damage. When wetlands are disturbed or mature trees replaced with seedlings, it may take decades for the natural system to return to its prior value, and in terms of net carbon emissions, the debt may never be repaid.

Now that planners are taking a renewed interest in sustainability, the time is right to rediscover planning and zoning principles to protect natural resources.

About the Speaker

Lane Kendig is founder and former president of Kendig Keast Collaborative. He has been practicing and writing about the relationship between community design planning and regulatory tools for more than 40 years. In addition to the recent books Community Character and its companion, A Guide to Planning with Community Character, Kendig is author of Performance Zoning and the PAS reports Too Big, Boring, or Ugly; Traffic Sheds, Rural Highway Capacity, and Growth Management; and Performance Standards for Non-Residential Uses.